Shane Lynch Fern Britton Meets...

MUSIC PLAYS OVER RADIO

DRILLS WHIR, HAMMER BANGS

In 1993, a 17-year-old car mechanic working in his father's garage

had to ask for the morning off. And his father said, "Why?"

And he said, "Well, I want to audition for a boy band."

And after a pause his father said, "Can you sing?"

He said, "I don't know." And his father said, "Well, be back by two."

And that is how a boy from north Dublin

set out on the road to worldwide stardom.

# ..So good Like I knew we would... #

Shane Lynch is a member of Boyzone,

one of the most successful boy bands in history.

# ..Gonna be so good... #

Young Dubliners plucked from obscurity

as Ireland's answer to Take That.

Nobody knew anything.

We were just five lads taken from our mothers in Ireland

and dropped in London in this band.

It was mental, absolutely mental.

# You will be there... #

Boyzone's career has spanned 22 years,

with a string of hit singles, eight albums,

more than 25 million record sales and a clutch of music industry awards.

-Boyzone! There's your award, guys.

-CHEERING

But after seven years in the media spotlight,

Shane's life began to spiral out of control.

He even dabbled in the world of the occult.

I was in a bad way. I was in a bad, bad, dark, dark place.

So I took upon a dark nature because I liked people fearing my character.

I danced with the devil without a doubt.

He scared me.

He had these black contacts in his eyes,

so his eyes were totally black, and he wasn't himself.

# Now I'm a man... #

As Boyzone went their separate ways, help came from an unexpected place.

He found God and... it done him the world of good.

I was hungry...I was hungry for God because of what it was doing for me,

how it was making me feel.

In 2009, Boyzone were back together

recording their first album in nearly a decade when tragedy struck.

On stage with the boys, we will always be five.

He is there and it will always be like that.

# The way you love me... #

Shane self-deprecatingly calls himself a "chancer".

So I want to find out, after all he's been through,

what sort of man that 17-year-old has become.

Ooh, Shane, this is a nice family home.

Did you ever think you'd have a family home as lovely as this?

-Well, welcome to start with, I suppose.

-Thank you.

Erm, yeah, as a young man I always...

certainly dreamt of having such things.

I came from a relatively big family,

so I always envisaged when I got older,

yeah, I'd have kids and all that, so...

Shane Eamon Lynch was born in the hot summer of 1976 in Dublin.

Home was six miles to the north-east of the city

in the leafy suburb of Donaghmede, surrounded by girls.

-Poor Shane. I mean, there's five girls and one boy.

-Yeah.

So that must have been dreadful in some kind of way,

like, watching all of us with our make-up and our nails.

The only other male in the Lynch household was Shane's dad, Brendan,

a car mechanic who owned his own garage business

and worked long hours.

He'd be gone out of the door before we got up for school,

and by the time we'd gone to bed, he wouldn't be home. You know, it'd be work, work, work, work.

He was a churchgoer, a very devout...

-He is still, I think, a very devout churchgoer?

-Yeah.

And so he took you and your sisters and your mum to church every Sunday?

He dragged us.

Meaning, as in, who wants to go to the church when they are a kid? I didn't.

-So they were just stories to you?

-Oh, church was nonsense as a child, nonsense.

Why do you want to sit down and listen to some drab old nonsense going on?

It doesn't mean anything to you.

That was busy taking up... time I could be jumping on my BMX, d'you know what I mean?

I used to ride motorbikes, mad about motorbikes at about the age of 12 years old,

fixing motorbikes, riding motorbikes.

So it was kind of a rogue type of feralness.

You were a boy being a boy.

Family life was happy, but at school, Shane struggled from the beginning.

When did you realise you first had a problem with reading?

Erm, I know a lot of the kids were starting to spell their name,

then the teacher says, "Very good. Well done, David. Well done, Michael. Well done, whatever."

There was never, "Well done, Shane," that's for sure.

I mean, they were just another pattern to me,

they weren't letters whatsoever.

In fact, Shane's problems stemmed from dyslexia,

undiagnosed until he was in his 30s.

While they were teaching, you understood the subjects, you just couldn't put it down on the page?

Yes, very much so. I couldn't pick up a book and read it to you,

that would be an impossible task.

I think he just always thought he was a bit stupid, really,

and just didn't take it in.

Well, he was always told that in school, you know.

Shane didn't shine academically,

but he drew attention to himself in other ways.

How did you come to school with a horse?

-TARA LAUGHS

-Apparently, he took a horse to school.

I see a guy coming down the road one day

in the middle of our housing estate on a horse

and I thought, "That's cool. That is proper cool, that's what I am going to do."

So I put my money together and I went down to the travellers.

I think it was £30 or something, buy this horse,

no saddle, no reins, no nothing, a bit of rope.

One of my friends said to me, "I saw Shane

"going to school on a horse." I was like, "What?! Are you serious?"

Where did you tie him up when you were at school?

Oh, to the bike rack. Oh, yeah, yeah, tied him to the bike rack, into school.

-Didn't anyone say, "Lynch..."?

-Of course but, you know, everything was fine.

And it was only for a day, so there was no real big problem afterwards.

But, you know, I liked being different

and I still like being different.

And then there's this moment at school, your behaviour has been such

that the head teacher, presumably, had had enough of you and he said,

-"That's it, just don't ever come back." And you were only 14.

-Yeah.

And there was a disruptive moment within the classroom. He said, "OK, Mr Lynch, stand outside the door".

I stood outside the door and the principal came by and he said,

"Ah, now, Mr Lynch, what are you out here for?"

I said, "Well..." - and genuinely, not telling a lie -

"..I didn't do anything, sir."

And he goes, "That's the point,

"you don't do anything in this school,

"so I'd really appreciate it if you didn't come back."

That must have hurt?

Erm, honestly, I don't remember that emotion back in the day,

other than...probably release and then immediate fear.

"How on earth am I going to tell my parents?"

I was being kicked out of school

because I couldn't do what the rest of the kids could do,

and that's be academic - read, write, you know.

Everything that they were doing, I couldn't do it.

Shane said nothing.

It was 1991, the end of the academic year,

and the Lynch family were heading for Portugal.

MUSIC: Should I Stay Or Should I Go? by The Clash

-And I think that was the summer you turned 15, was it?

-Yeah. 15, yeah.

-Yeah.

-I think that was the worst summer of my life.

And every day I woke up, the fear of my life, facing the fact

that yesterday I didn't tell my dad I was kicked out of school

and I couldn't go back.

And all summer, you've got to think about how you're going to mention this.

We were coming back from Portugal back to Ireland,

my dad, all of us in the camper van.

September was coming, I'm thinking, "Boy, you know, it's got to happen."

So I built up the courage, and I remember we had these curtains

that separated the front of the camper van to the back,

so my dad could concentrate on driving.

I remember opening the curtains, taking a big deep breath and saying,

"Dad...I really don't like school

"and I'd love an apprenticeship.

"Any chance I can have a job?"

And he kind of took his eye off the road for a second,

looked at me...

-"No problem, son."

-SHE GASPS

..and kept on driving.

If I had have done that three months ago,

I would have had the best summer of my life!

And it taught me such an amazing lesson in life,

that we put off, we put off, we put off, we put off,

what we don't want to do or we're scared of,

but, actually, if I had just got it over and done with, it would never have been an issue.

And, honestly, the whole world just... The heavens opened,

the angels sang. And that was it, I was going to work for my dad.

That was it, I became a man.

For the next three years,

Shane worked in the garage learning his father's trade.

I mean, every day in that garage, it was just some of the best times in my life, I loved it.

Rain, hail, sleet, snow, it didn't matter.

Cold spanner stuck to your hands, you know, you didn't wear gloves back in the day,

you didn't have hand protection as they do now, it was just raw!

So there you are, working with your dad,

presumably the radio's on in the garage?

-No, never in the garage. There's no time for listening to music in that garage.

-Really?

-So...

-You're crazy! I always enjoyed music as a kid.

I wasn't your typical Irish guy - U2, rock, rock, rock.

So I was into, again, being different.

"What's across the pond in America? Hip-hop, wow, amazing, love it."

-And actually genuinely did.

-# Always want to get some

# Pick pockets and then they try to play dumb. Yo! #

But I never thought I'd be in music for sure.

No, you wanted to be in cars.

Yeah, I wanted to be in cars.

# ..Answers I can find

# Baby, I want you

# Come, come, come into my arms... #

While Shane was serving his apprenticeship learning about brake systems and diagnostics,

five lads from Manchester were storming the charts.

So your friend, Mark Walton,

he was the one who said to you, "Here, have you heard this Take That? They're fantastic.

"We could be... We could be an Irish boy band."

And you think, "Yeah, that's... Yeah, good idea, let's do that."

Was it as simple as that?

-D'you know, as mad as it is, yes.

-SHE LAUGHS

You know, I didn't think, "Oh, how's that going to happen?"

I just went, "That's a great idea, I'm going to be that."

And it's funny cos, like, we went...

In that particular conversation of,

"This band, boy band... OK, cool, sounds good.

"What do we do? We need a manager. Oh, yeah, we need a manager.

"How do we get one of those? I don't know."

So, we had this meeting set up,

it was on Grafton Street at one o'clock in the day with this guy.

But there was still one big hurdle to overcome,

Shane needed time off from the garage.

And for that, he needed permission from his dad.

You don't really take time off work.

Maybe if you had a limb missing, he'd let you away with it, but that's about it.

So, anyway, on the way into work I said,

"Listen, Dad, I've got an interview later on with a manager

"about being in a band".

The most ridiculous thing ever!

And my dad, being him...

..doesn't say much for a second or two, driving away.

He looks across... "Is that right, son?"

He goes, "Tell me something..."

"..do you sing, son?" he says.

I said, "No."

"Oh, right, right."

"What instrument do you play, son?"

I said, "I don't play any instrument."

He goes, "Right, right.

"What are you going to do in this band?"

I said, "I don't really know".

He goes, "OK, be back by two o'clock".

Brilliant.

And so Mark and Shane kept their appointment on Grafton Street

with their prospective manager.

His name was...Louis Walsh.

He opens up this silver briefcase.

-Oh, yes.

-He takes out his...

Actually, fax, reels of fax paper back in the day,

and he was showing me, he was showing us.

The amazing thing about that was he was selling himself to us.

And he sold us the dream. Honestly, he said, "Lads, the sun, the moon and the stars will be yours.

"I'm your man."

And, right enough, he sure was.

He really got all the newspapers firing, didn't he?

We started to get recognised for no reason whatsoever,

and we're signing autographs for no reason,

and, you know, we're talking about how great our band is going to be

and we didn't even have a band.

But he really did, he got that ball rolling, he got Ireland excited.

Louis' campaign culminated

in a newspaper advertisement

inviting talented singers

to audition for the new boy band.

I remember way back seeing the advert in the newspaper.

And it was Shane and another lad,

and it was a black-and-white photograph,

and they were kind of hanging out of a tree.

More than 300 boys turned up for the auditions.

You and Mark and Louis watch these auditions go through.

A young Ronan came in front of you, he was only 15?

Ronan was the youngest.

-At 15 he would have came to the audition.

-Shane was in the room.

I didn't know who he was, I just thought he was this big...

music guru or something.

I didn't know what he was.

Who was next? You've got Mikey...

-Yeah, Mick, Stephen and Keith, yeah.

-And Keith!

So I turned up there and I saw Shane and he said...

You know, he didn't say much,

you could see his eyes going, "What are you doing here?"

You'd already had a sort of passing of the ways with Keith, hadn't you?

Well, I've known Keith all my life practically, I never liked him.

We were... We were chalk and cheese.

We were always enemies.

Two good-looking guys in the same neighbourhood, you know what I mean, it was going to happen.

Oh, he was... He was beautiful! He was a beautiful boy.

My mother was a hairdresser and my father was in the rag trade,

so, you know, I'd good clothes

and I always had a few blond streaks in me hair.

Hair always done, streaks.

Denim, sharp shoes shining, and me, I was covered in muck, dirt, oil,

motorbikes, I was that greasy grimer and he was that shiner,

you know what I mean?

Another striking young wannabe was Dublin boy, Colin Farrell,

now an international film star.

He's a good-looking guy. I mean, Colin Farrell, it was unbelievable.

I think he actually kind of could sing, Colin.

Colin Farrell should have been in Boyzone, if you really look back at it.

He actually really should have been.

I'm probably thankful he's not... now, but he should have been.

With 300 whittled down to ten, this was the last chance to shine,

and time for Shane and Mark

to compete for a place in their own band.

So, they'd all auditioned, you and Mark hadn't auditioned,

so there's a point when you two have to go,

-"We've got to stand up and do this too."

-"We've got to do this."

And I remember thinking,

"Wow! I've got to actually get out of my chair and stand at that tin."

I remember the guy on the keyboard playing, er, Careless Whisper,

George Michael, at the time.

And I remember learning the song for about ten minutes before I went in.

And I got into the final cut

by the skin of my teeth or by flying colours, I haven't a clue,

but I just know I was in the band.

-APPLAUSE

-Oh, macho men have come to town.

OK. Well, who's who now? You identify yourself.

-I'm Ronan Keating.

-Ronan Keating. Where are you from?

Just 24 hours after the final audition,

Louis threw his final six in at the deep end

with an appearance on The Late Late Show presented by Gay Byrne.

..Ireland's answer to Take That.

It was Boyzone but not as we know it.

-The Late Late Show was the biggest show in Ireland.

-Hmm.

Their biggest show, it didn't get any bigger,

and we had this slot on the Friday night Late Late Show.

Getting an opportunity like that was fantastic at the time.

We're going to be the new Irish pop group.

-You're going to be the new Irish pop group?

-That's right.

-At the teenybopper market?

-The teenybopper market.

We thought we were superstars. We were on the television. "We're famous."

-You don't play any instruments or have any songs.

-ALL: We do.

-You do?

-They don't. They don't, they're lying...

The boys thought that Gay Byrne had invited them onto the show for an interview.

And when...Mr Byrne came in

and he then decided, "Well, no, I'm not happy with that, I want the lads to do something."

-So...

-But he was right.

He was right, but it was also, he was very wrong,

because, you know, give us a chance!

"I don't even know this fella, let alone do anything with him." We'd only just been put together.

And so we were kind of shovelled into a corner.

So we said, "Right, lads, let's just get an old song together, we'll do a dance and crack on."

Cue the music. Let's hear it.

# Burn, baby

# All my energy

# Burn, baby, burn, baby

# All my energy

# Burn, baby, burn, baby

# Oh, my fantasy

# Burn, baby, burn, baby... #

We spent the whole day there in one of the dressing rooms

practising that dance routine.

# Burn, baby, burn, baby... #

I know people look at it and go, "You practised that?!"

-But, yes, we actually practised that for a long time.

-HE LAUGHS

I remember, the next day we all thought this was the best thing ever,

but little did we know everyone was laughing at us, you know.

-Oh, they really got some stick, didn't they?

-Yeah.

You kind of cringe a little bit and you think, "That's going to haunt us for ever." And it does.

I love it, though. There was a time... There really was a time

where I was just distraught by that whole programme.

But, actually, I love it. I love the innocence. I love the nonsense.

I love the fact that you can actually come out on top

no matter how difficult you think the journey is ahead.

I'm not pulling it out of the drawer, saying to my kids or anyone,

"This is a moment of my life."

No, this was the beginning, the birth of Boyzone

-as raw...as raw as you like.

-Yeah.

Couldn't walk, couldn't cry, couldn't feed from a bottle,

we were straight off the breast, if you want to call that point, and into the world.

Don't forget, they're called Boyzone. Do you get it? Boys' own.

-Who came up with the name Boyzone?

-I don't know where the name actually comes from.

I'd love to tell you a beautiful story about that, all I know is we're called Boyzone

and...that's it.

It worked.

-It worked.

-It did, it really worked.

Thank you very much. Well done.

Soon after that, two members of the band left.

Original band member Mark Walton decided to leave

and Richard Rock was sacked.

Will Richard Rock please make himself known.

-Of course it was. Well done, Bill.

-APPLAUSE

Richard, I'd like to congratulate you for not being in Boyzone.

LAUGHTER

APPLAUSE

Stand-by Michael Graham was brought in.

But even with a new line-up,

the band nearly didn't make it off the starting grid.

-You and Keith, I mean, you're still mad, you're still a mad 17-year-old boy racer.

-Yeah.

-Out one night in your car with dodgy tyres pumped up, driving too fast...

-Yeah.

-..Keith is your passenger...

-Uh-huh.

..and you lose it.

Yeah, it was about 12 o'clock at night, raining...

..came to a particular corner and out she went sideways, as we say.

And I remember sliding down the road

for quite some time, thinking, "Oh, this is going to hurt."

And I said to Keith, "Hold on tight."

And I just remember sinking into my chair and then - bang!

And we went over and over and over quite a few times.

And we landed upside down in the squashed car,

hanging in our seatbelts.

I couldn't say anything

and I couldn't look because I was afraid of what I might see.

And it was a deadly silence, an absolute deadly silence.

He said, "Are you all right, man?" I went, "Yeah. You?"

He said, "Yeah. Let's get out of this banger." And that's when we pressed the seatbelts

and nearly broke our necks, you know.

Climbed out of the car and Shane was as cool as pie, you know.

I remember the fireman saying,

"Well, lads...can't sing, can't dance, can't flipping drive either."

SHE LAUGHS

That was the defining moment as they drove off.

I think Louis was MAD with you, wasn't he?

Louis was pretty frustrated and angry about the fact

that, obviously, I nearly killed half his band!

For the next few months, Boyzone toured the pubs and clubs of Ireland

in a battered old transit van.

Nothing was handed to us on a plate, we had to go out and earn it for ourselves.

We had these orange overalls, we used to wear them every night.

They were stinking because you couldn't wash them.

You'd take them home and our mas would wash them at the end of the week.

Why would Boyzone wear something like this?

Ireland had never seen a boy band or anything,

so it was really hard for them to even be taken seriously at this point.

Growing up in Northside, Dublin, in a boy band was a tough time back then.

Guys our own age would be calling us all sorts of names.

Vocal harmony groups seem to be all the rage these days.

I'm delighted to introduce - Boyzone.

Yes, they actually got another TV show.

Performing their debut single, they look polished and rehearsed.

# I keep working my way back to you, babe

-ALL:

-# With a burning love inside... #

This Four Seasons' cover was only released in Ireland

and peaked at number three.

# And the happiness that died... #

But Boyzone were yet to perform in the UK.

Then we went on the Smash Hits Tour, which kind of changed everything for Boyzone.

The brilliant Boyzone!

CHEERING

Teen magazine Smash Hits

sponsored an annual music tour around the UK

featuring readers' favourite bands

and a Best Band on the Road competition...

..Boyzone!

..which Boyzone won in front of a BBC audience of 11 million viewers.

Everybody at home, we made it. Thank you!

It was the break they needed.

Britain's number two is that old Osmonds' classic, Love Me For A Reason.

They're here, they're live on stage with their biggest fan - Boyzone.

# Don't love me for fun, girl

# Let me be the one, girl

# Love me for a reason... #

And the hits kept coming.

# We're gonna be so good

# Like only we could

# Come on and hit me now

# Gonna be so good... #

I think back in the day,

we weren't a band, we were a product,

the product that got shopped around the world.

We were these quite shy, erm,

polite, nice Irish charming guys.

-GIRL:

-'Have they got a girlfriend at the moment?'

-Let's go round. Let's start at that end. Ronan?

-No, I haven't.

-Mikey?

-No.

-Shane?

-Unfortunately, no, but I would love one.

No use appealing on this show.

We were always welcome on every TV show,

cos you always knew you would get

a nice, mannered, polite interview.

# And all of my dreams

# Have been locked up inside

# But you came along and captured my heart, girl... #

In that early stage of the whole band process,

I was happy enough to do my oohs and aahs,

that's all I was there for, I didn't want to take a lead anyway.

# Blaming myself for what I've done... #

Well, Shane was always quite... quiet in the early years.

You know, he kind of kept to himself.

It was kind of hard to figure out who he was and what he was about.

# And now I'm missing you so... #

-I'm the wingman, not the sing-man, you know.

-Ah!

Cos that's always what I was, I was the bookend that held up

the, you know, real story in the middle.

-You're going red!

-Am I?

-Ah!

-SHANE LAUGHS

All right, fellas. What you doing here?

But you all then moved over to London and lived in a flat in Baker Street.

It was a brilliant, brilliant innocent time for us guys, actually.

I'd never lived away from home, let alone the rest of the boys,

so all of a sudden we're in London and we're living in a flat by yourselves.

We stayed in a hotel first on Russell Square,

which was very funny cos we didn't have enough money to pay the bill,

so we had to chuck our bags out a window and we legged it.

# ..London loves... #

And we were given daily money to spend.

How much was your daily money?

-I think it was 15 quid each.

-Each?

Yeah, a day.

-Erm...

-So you didn't get up to too much?

Didn't get up to anything! I didn't drink, I didn't smoke, I didn't do any of that.

Did you not have a chaperone or anything to look after you?

We had nobody there to look after us, we would go and do whatever interviews and they'd drop us home.

Nobody knew how to cook, nobody knew how to clean, nobody knew anything.

We were just five lads taken from our mothers in Ireland and dropped in London in this band.

Well, yeah, trying to make the time, the day go by sometimes...

We were left to our own devices.

We played hide-and-go-seek in the dark.

-We'd turn off all the lights.

-Pitch-black, and play hide-and-go-seek.

All night long, you know what I mean,

cos we were just silly boys released into this world called London.

It was just brilliant! Absolutely brilliant.

Mental. Absolutely mental.

And then when did you get your first big cheque and what was it for?

Erm, I think it would be on our second tour before we saw any money.

So that was... Yeah.

The only reason I know was because I was 19 years old

and I bought a car, of course I did, what else would I do with the money?

-What was the cheque worth?

-I think at the time it was about £75,000.

-SHE GASPS

-That was my first cheque I'd seen out of Boyzone.

So that 75 grand, I remember thinking,

"Yeah, of course, straight away - boom - Porsche 911."

Of course I did, what else would I do with it?

Well, so now you've got the Porsche 911, you've got some money in the bank, I hope?

-Yeah.

-And you're in the big time, that's it.

The winner is...Boyzone!

CHEERING

You've got Best Band in the Universe...

-Thank you very much!

-You've got Best Single...

And lastly, you've got... I can't see that... Best Album!

You want that one?

Boyzone!

# I had a picture of you in my mind

# Never knew it could be so wrong... #

With success came confidence and an image to maintain.

CHEERING

# Expressions Impression

# These girls are out to fascinate

# Oh, no-no-no-no-no...

# Whatcha say... #

I heard that you were voted the coolest man in pop.

I heard that as well.

If you look back over the years, I don't think there's any one year that's the same image at all.

Shano always looked like a pop star.

I always looked different from the guys,

always had earrings, gold, whatever, tattoos,

and they were quite clean in that respect.

The uniform we wore, as in, they'd always be in suits,

I would have a long flowing jacket.

Something always was slightly different.

Blond? Dark? No, I think the best were his sticks.

-Do you remember sticks in his hair?

-Yes.

That was the funniest hairstyle he ever had.

Little twiggy things sticking out of his head.

# I'll be there when there's no-one else to turn to... #

Yet, despite the flashy image,

Shane remained the shy wingman.

Did your confidence come, though, with your voice and your singing?

I don't think my confidence in music or singing

came till we went live on tour.

Then I understood what it was to be an artist.

# Can't believe the way I feel now. # CHEERING

Performing in front of the crowd?

Singing live on stage with a band to an audience.

So, tell me about preparing for a big arena show.

What's the kind of routine?

You'd probably be in the venue roughly about five o'clock in the day,

sound check, and then press, press, press, press.

# One kiss at a time. #

The last half hour before you were on stage,

if you possibly could, get back to the dressing room and get your head in gear,

cos you're about to stand in front of 10,000 people.

Everybody has their own way.

Shane walks about in his jocks, erm, with his socks on.

His socks up to his knees, cleaning his teeth.

So the lights go, you're all backstage waiting,

any little words or huddle together?

Yeah, we always, as a band, and still do till today,

we always get in our circle and say a little prayer to God,

just giving thanks for being where we are and to say,

"Thanks for putting us here."

CHEERING

And then that moment when you explode on stage and the house goes wild

and the lights are beaming in your eyes like phosphorous or something

and the smoke is swirling...

-Yeah.

-Did you ever lose that, "Oh, we're doing this"?

-It's breathtaking.

-Yeah.

I don't think I have ever witnessed anything in life as breathtaking

as walking out on stage in front of a crowd like that.

It's... It's... I mean, I don't know how you can possibly explain it.

Amazing emotions. Amazing.

-And you could give each other a look and you'd know what was happening?

-Yeah.

I tell you, we'll have a laugh and a joke and the best time.

We'll have such a great time on stage with each other

that the audience know what's going on and they're all part of our show.

We're not the most polished band you'll ever go and see.

To be fair, I don't think I've ever stuck to one routine we've ever done live.

If I want to go over there, I'm going to go over there.

# ..Like I knew we would... #

# Hey! Hey!

# Oh-Oh... #

Shane wasn't the only member of the Lynch household

pursuing a successful career in the music industry.

Girl band B*Witched featured Shane's twin sisters Edele and Keavy.

..And one of them has siblings in Boyzone and B*Witched.

See if you can guess which one.

Tara was in FAB!

# ..I hope we find a way... #

It is crazy that three of us... Sorry, four of us, not three,

-were on the circuit at the same time in the pop world.

-It was five.

-Five?

-Naomi.

Naomi as well, of course.

-Our little sister was in Buffalo G at that point as well, so...

-Yeah.

# Really saying something

# Really saying something... #

Shane was even in sister Naomi's video.

It was so much fun

cos you're just working and hanging out all day and all night.

-What are they like?

-Yeah.

Oh, well...

I couldn't say a bad thing about my sisters, to be honest. You know what I mean?

# C'est la vie. #

Cue the music and turn over.

# How can I try now to explain

# When I do he turns away... #

The boy from Dublin who had been kicked out of school for being a waste of time was living the dream.

Boyzone were a household name.

ALL: # I know I have to go... #

Quiet!

And they were enjoying the ever more extreme ways of exploiting them

and their pop rivals.

# That's the way it is. #

CHEERING

Boyzone...fever!

-'What do you wear in bed?'

-What do you wear in bed?

Depends on who's with me.

-Are you a bit exhausted?

-Not at all.

No, we're five strapping Irish lads, we can go for ever.

But these strapping Irish lads

were feeling the pressure of the punishing schedules.

You've got jet lag, or whatever you're feeling, and you're awake at three, four, five in the morning,

and you know you have to get up at seven to do a TV show and be all spritely.

There's...a terrible desperation in that.

It's very difficult.

It's very hard to see the wood for the trees

and you become quite cranky,

and you get on each other's nerves and stuff like that.

And then as things do, because you're all together, all the time,

in this pressure-cooker bubble,

things obviously start to grate.

-Yeah.

-And start to get boring and exhausting and monotonous.

When did you feel that first twinge for you that...

"..I think I've had enough"?

It was probably towards...

About '98, 1998.

I was...starting to change my character,

which... I knew there was a problem.

So, I was...

Rather than being the guy that just got on with things in the early days and made it happen,

I started to step out of line a little bit.

I started to notice that he became more withdrawn in interviews.

We had dreams and hopes, you know, but this has just been amazing for us, this past four years.

So the rest of the boys would talk. And because I know all of them, I know their personalities,

I know they've all got something to say, and Shane would be quiet.

-We liked that one today, so we done it.

-We had no choice really.

'I was very unpredictable. I was an unpredictable guy.

'They didn't know what I was going to do next, what I was going to say next.'

-Um...

-And not with good humour?

Not with good humour, because I liked people fearing my character.

Because I was shy, it also... kind of put me in a position

where people left me alone.

He'd do some freaky things, like, you know, sit on a windowsill in an apartment

with a sheet over his head all night instead of going to bed.

You kind of think that's a bit strange, that's a bit weird.

He scared me. He had these black contacts in his eyes,

so his eyes were totally black, and he wasn't himself.

Smile, please.

'He just never smiled.'

He always looks, like, kind of quite angry and quite irritated by a lot of situations.

So, where he should have been taking it all in and having the greatest time of his life,

-he actually, behind closed doors, was having the worst of times.

-Yeah.

Shane's sisters began to notice other changes in their brother.

I'd meet up with him and it could be 11 o'clock in the morning

and he'd sit there with a pint.

"Oh!" You know, you get a bit kind of, "I don't think I like that."

There was another reason for Shane's unusual behaviour.

It began in 1996 and the release of Boyzone's second album.

We had a Halloween party, all the journalists all there.

I found myself in a room with some people -

I don't know who they were -

and a Ouija board, and it fascinated me.

It really, really did.

And from there, I took onboard

a lot of that darker side of the world.

-Which is very seductive.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

You know, a lot of people will go to clairvoyants and tarot readings

and they don't realise what they're delving into,

they don't realise that this is

a bad realm that you really don't want to mess with,

and I'm a definite witness of that.

Erm, yeah, I was in a bad way.

I was in a bad, bad, dark, dark place.

Your body is full of tattoos, as we know,

and you have got a broken cross on you somewhere, where is that?

I have a broken crucifix over my heart

that I had done in Hong Kong in about 1998.

-So that was in the grip of this?

-Yeah.

Cos I was anti-Christ, I was anti-God,

anti-Bible, anti everything to do with it.

And it's still there,

it's wrapped in some rosary beads now to try and tie it up,

but it's still there.

Well, it's a reminder as well of how far you went.

-Boyzone!

-CHEERING

The dark side of Shane, his unpredictability and his drinking,

came to a head at the 1999 MTV Awards,

which were held in Boyzone's hometown of Dublin.

The rest of the band were all done up, suited and booted,

and you couldn't care.

Look at us now!

My kind of thinking was,

"Well, if I go suited and booted like the rest of the lads,

"we're not going to get one, are we?"

I'd like to say thank you to all our fans, family, friends...

'And, actually, we ended up on the stage.'

We were sitting in the audience of MTV with my mum and dad.

I'd just like to thank a couple of people...

And all the boys looking sharp and I was just doing my thing and didn't really care.

Shane had clearly had a lot to drink.

CHEERING

There were all these rumours Boyzone were going their separate ways and were going to split up.

All right, folks?

'Shane wasn't having it, so he started getting quite vulgar'

and then using a couple of swear words, I believe,

which I was quite shocked at at the time.

In the press recently

-there's been a whole load of

-BLEEP!

-about Boyzone...

-CHEERING

..in the year 2000 about breaking up.

And my poor mam's face just crumpled

and I was just, like, "What's he doing?!"

Well, I was actually hosting the awards and it's, like, "Oh, my God!"

And I have them in my ear going, "OK, move on, move on, on to the next bit. Get him out. Get him out."

If you look at it now, it's actually not that bad.

This is a dude in a boy band having a little something to say.

There's no harm came out of it other than I had a little rant and a go,

but at the time it was like, ooh, shock horror, for sure, we were this innocent boy band.

-All right, folks...

-Shane, don't say it!

-It just goes to show you how far he fell.

-Yeah.

-Cos he would never normally do things like that ever.

-Never.

-We're Irish and we'll be here for a long time.

-CHEERING

-I think it was a couple of weeks later we broke up.

-SHE LAUGHS

We've all got some stuff to do on our own for a while,

but believe me, Boyzone is stronger than it's ever been before.

Ronan announced the break to fans at the end of a concert in Dublin in January, 2000.

You know, we all had our own demons, and our own things that we had to deal with,

and places we wanted to go and things we wanted to do in our lives.

And, I guess, I was the reason that that break led to a break-up.

Erm, it wasn't easy at times between us all,

people had words to say and it was hard...to take it.

It was a tough time to break up,

when we were coming to the top of our game, we broke up.

Thankfully, we stopped when we did,

because it was about to get real horrible and real messy.

And Ronan went on to do his solo project

and that just lasted for a lot longer than any of us expected.

There was probably never a chance to come out of it if we had continued, you know,

so I was lucky I was left alone in my house in Surrey,

my million pound mansion by myself and all my anger, you know.

So, you sit at home thinking, "What now?"

Yeah, in an odd sense of freedom, because I didn't have anywhere to go.

I used to wake up panicking, thinking I'm meant to be at the airport,

thinking I'm missing the car, "The car's outside!"

-Like, panicked for months and months and months.

-Were you drinking?

Yeah, I was drinking a lot...almost to go back into a fantasy world,

-cos music is a fantasy world.

-Yeah.

Travelling the world in private jets,

champagne, caviar, limousines, best hotels.

I don't go to the shops, I've never been to the shops,

I don't know what's in my fridge, there's nothing in my fridge, you know.

I didn't know how to live in a normal world because I was taken as a young boy.

I was always looked after by my mother,

into this world of the band, being looked after by people,

did nothing for myself particularly, so now I had to learn.

What were your parents doing at that time? They must have been worried about you?

They didn't know what was going on,

I didn't tell them what was going on.

I wasn't a very open guy and still aren't.

In fact, I find it easier to talk about life on camera

than I do to actually sit and talk to my wife or my parents,

for whatever that reason is.

He didn't know how to cope with whatever he was dealing with in those dark times.

Erm, and I think he would have been quite happy to let us all drift away.

You kind of do that though, don't you? I've gone through some dark times in my life

and you tend to do that, push everyone close enough away.

They didn't really know what was going on, I didn't tell them what was going on,

so I was a one-man band in that respect.

-So who held out a hand to you and helped?

-One particular guy, Ben.

Ben Ofoedu.

-Ben was a huge influence on Shane's life.

-A huge change.

# Got to turn around... #

In the late-1990s,

Ben Ofoedu was lead singer of the band Phats & Small.

# Listen to what I say... #

But he'd known Shane back in the early days of Boyzone.

Each time it was a different Shane. He would...

You know, when I first met him he never drank, he never...

He was always just more into cars and stuff, but this time he was more reckless, he was more rock-and-roll.

Erm, he had that kind of aggression, it's like, you know,

"I'm watching you. Say the wrong thing and I'll flip."

# Hey, what's wrong with you?

# You're looking kind of down to me... #

Ben, there was something about that guy, he had a beautiful nature,

a beautiful nature, and his heart was for people,

and there was something about what he was talking about really attracted me.

# Listen to what I say... #

I was always a Christian, and I was always very particular about the things I sung about,

and particularly about the things I said,

whereas, at that time, I think Shane would have just said anything.

He didn't really care, he didn't really look at it like that.

# Got to turn around... #

And so, that's when a lot of the subject of God and things like that

started to come up and it became a topic of conversation.

I mean, I grew up in a Catholic household, so I know a lot of biblical stories,

but he was taking them and putting them into my life and showing me

how I was like this particular character or that particular character.

And it just intrigued me to the point of, like,

"Whoa! This...this is amazing!"

And the more we began to talk about it,

he started to reveal to me, slowly but surely,

that there more under the surface was going on

than just that anger with the band stuff.

And stuff that he couldn't quite explain

and he couldn't quite get his mind around.

And, erm, I said, "Listen, I've got to tell you about...

"I've got a problem."

He was experiencing this paralysis where he couldn't move,

his eyes were open and then the dimensions would split,

so the room would open up and things would fly past his eyes and sight

and he couldn't move.

I saw a lot of the spiritual world.

And it manifested itself in this awful sleep paralysis,

which a lot of people do have, but this was terrifying for you.

Yeah, you know, I danced with the devil without a doubt.

I hung out with his demonic principalities, definitely.

Usually, erm, I would have kind of, I would have run a mile, right,

but there was something about Shane that I really feel that I had a connection with.

He probably should have turned and ran because that should have been scary.

He embraced that and he took it onboard and he was like, "Cool, no problem."

And he had the answers for me.

And every day I'd call him

and I got probably a little obsessive, I suppose -

I don't know if he'd ever say that or not! -

but I just wanted to hear his voice.

Even two lines he would speak to me, it was filling me, you know,

it was like just being topped up, topped up, topped up.

From there, I was determined to then find out, "Well, who's God?"

And that was where I really started my journey.

He picked up the phone and actually phoned me after maybe three or four years.

I was like, "Oh, do you not want anything?"

He went, "No, I was just seeing how you were." And I thought, "Wow!

"OK, this church is doing something for you, that's good."

Shane was still slowly putting his life back together when in 2001,

he went to London's Party in the Park.

And I was there, I was drinking, of course I was there drinking.

A young singer working with another Irish boyband, Westlife, spotted him backstage.

I knew who he was.

I said to my friend, "Oh, my God! I think he's so gorgeous."

So my friend said, "Go and talk to him." And I went, "Are you mad?

"No! No, no, no way!"

And I remember this girl came over to talk to me

and she...she was lovely, she was beautiful.

A stunning, stunning girl. I remember thinking, "Wow! She's stunning!"

The two got chatting and numbers were exchanged.

And then I got this text, like, maybe a year later out of the blue,

asking if I wanted to meet up for a drink and I thought, "Yeah, why not?"

And we spent every single day together for a year or more,

not one single day went past that I didn't see that girl.

And every day I'd drive from my house to where she lived,

which is an hour or so away, so that means I couldn't drink.

So she got me off the drink.

She lived with her mum, so I couldn't stay at her mum's house,

because her mum's... It's all very church, it's all very serious.

So I had met somebody who just...

Well, basically, love, I found love.

# Your grace... #

And in Sheena was someone who shares Shane's Christian faith.

It was really important for me that somebody who I was going to marry

and have a family with has faith, believes in God...

..because I don't know how anybody...lives without faith.

I don't understand it. It just doesn't... I don't get it.

BAND PLAYS CHRISTIAN ROCK MUSIC

Yet Shane and Sheena come from very different church traditions.

Sheena's church is Pentecostal.

We come from straight out of scripture.

The Bible says, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord," and we do that,

we make a joyful noise.

# His hand... #

So I think he found that in the beginning a lot.

You would, coming from, you know, get up, sit down.

It's different, you know, quiet, and to clapping your hands

and singing, and a live band and live music.

And you started to go to Bible Class with her?

Because of Ben, I was hungry... I was hungry for God

because of what it was doing for me, how it was making me feel,

so I started to listen to what, you know, was being said.

And the most amazing thing about that is, I thought

I was going into a classroom, schooling, and it frightened the life out of me.

What our focus is is on giving God...

This was the old fear of not being able to read and write.

I can't read the Bible, so I can't write nothing down.

So I didn't really know what I was getting involved in,

but I just listened and listened and learned and learned.

And the relevance of how the Bible was broken down into today's, you know,

of who we are and how it can deal with our life.

-The relevance?

-The relevance.

And he came to one and then you couldn't stop him from coming to them, basically,

I think he just learnt so much.

I loved it! I could not get enough of it.

It was the most magical thing ever.

The Bible sort of opened up

in a way that he had never known or seen before.

And then you got baptised?

Yeah. That's a fantastic blessing in anyone's life, to be baptised.

I wish I was back there, nearly 12 years ago now

when I first came to God.

I would love to have that again.

I'd love to be in that place where I was just...

that zeal, that vessel getting filled up by that knowledge,

that joy, that love, it's incredible.

I think it's amazing the journey he's gone through from what he was,

to be strong enough to come through it. It's something to be quite proud of it.

I'm quite proud of it and he should be too, cos it's a big deal making a turn like that.

# You're the air that I breathe

# Girl, you're all that I need

# And I wanna thank you, lady... #

Shane's life was back on track.

In 2007, he married Sheena.

Stephen Gately was best man and, soon afterwards,

Boyzone were reunited after a seven-year break.

At that stage, we'd all had to live in reality for seven years.

We'd come out of our bubble, we realised how lucky we had been.

And to get that opportunity and chance again was very special.

We didn't...we didn't blink. We enjoyed every moment.

The group were planning a fourth studio album

when tragedy struck in October 2009.

Tributes are being paid to the Boyzone singer, Stephen Gately,

who's died while on holiday on the Spanish island of Majorca

at the age of 33...

Before Stephen, he hadn't had anybody close in his life

that had passed away and it came as a real...

real shock to him, erm, to all of them.

Stephen died, aged 33, of an undiagnosed heart condition.

You know, Steo and Shano had a very, you know,

a particular strong bond.

You know, Shane looked after Steo, you know,

protected him almost, in a way.

I loved him, loved him dearly.

He, to me, he was my little brother.

Now he's older than I, er, by a year or so,

but he was always my little brother.

Shane is one of the hardest, toughest men I have ever met.

But, you know, to see him break like he did broke my heart.

The boys came together and they were amazing for Steo.

The way they flew over to him and made sure he got back safe

and organised the whole funeral and everything.

The boys also made a promise to Stephen's parents.

Stephen had to spend a night in the church before his funeral.

And his mother just basically said that, um, he didn't like the dark

and she didn't want him in the church on his own.

And we just said, "Well, look, hang on.

"We'll spend the night in the church with him."

To lay next to a coffin all night,

that's a spooky thing to do, to be fair.

But we all... we got our sleeping bags,

the priest came in with a couple of bottles of wine for us, and at...

I think it was about 12 o'clock at night. We were all starving hungry!

I didn't think about food, and there was a knock on the church door -

no word of a lie, if you know the name - but in came Daniel O'Donnell.

-No!

-In came Daniel O'Donnell with a load of fish and chips.

-Did he?!

-We sat, we ate.

We laughed, we joked, erm, just told amazing stories about Steo.

But it was an amazing thing to do, a magical thing to do.

We seen him off with joy instead of sorrow.

That was unique. That was very special for the four of us,

cos it was our last night together as a five-piece, I guess.

And, er, yeah, we laughed and we cried

and we got through the night together and...

..the next morning, we laid our brother to rest. It was very hard.

Very, very difficult.

# For all I've been blessed with in this life

# There was an emptiness in me

# I was imprisoned by the power of gold... #

Were you angry with God?

I don't...I don't know the future of what he has planned.

I can only accept it, because that's his time. That was Steo's time.

# Let the world stop turning... #

When he passed, we were in the middle of making an album and...

it was very easy just to go, "We're not that band any more,"

to call it a day and to stop,

and I'm so thankful we didn't.

I'm so thankful we finished the album.

We realised that the one thing Steo would have wanted

was for Boyzone to go on, because it allowed Steo almost,

his memory to live on too through the songs.

# Why-y-y

# I lay my heart down on the floor! #

Boyzone's album Brother was released five months after Stephen's death

and features the last vocals he ever recorded.

# But I gave it all away

-STEPHEN:

-# I-I-I-I-I... #

It went platinum in the week Stephen would've turned 34.

Of course I shed many a tear and still do sometimes, um,

usually one of the times you're not expecting it

is when it kind of hits you.

Um, the best times I can have with Stephen today is

with the other boys, cos that's my memories, that's our stories,

that's when we talk about him and that's when we celebrate him.

# I showed you love You wanted more-ore-ore... #

On stage with the boys, what I feel is we will always be five.

In my head, he's there and it's brilliant to have him there.

-STEPHEN:

-# I gave it all away. #

22 years after their Late Late Show debut,

Boyzone are stronger than ever,

recording, touring, enjoying each other's company.

They are brothers.

When they get together, honestly, it is...

out and out, just you laugh and you laugh and you laugh.

When they tour, they'll be touring the world,

but they still share one dressing room, running around laughing,

like they were when they were 17.

It's a real beautiful thing to see.

It's like time just stood still.

Shane's demons are well and truly behind him.

The Shane I know now, really I suppose,

is kind of like the Shane I first met.

But it was a different Shane in the middle.

You know, we all had to go to an extreme to grow up, to come back,

to find out the person that we want to be for the rest of our lives.

And he smiles a lot more than he used to, definitely.

He's a pure gentleman. He has a heart the size of, of Ireland.

And 12 years after his baptism,

faith remains at the centre of Shane's life.

He found God and it done him the world of good.

Shane started to find his faith and, er, everything changed for Shano.

And, you know what, he's just... he's one in a billion.

The thing is, I love Jesus, I love, love, love, love my Lord, my God

and for what he has taken me from to what I am now.

But that said, like everything, it gets to a point you have to now

find a balance in life and God eventually does let your hand go,

meaning, I've got two daughters, er, my little Marlee now,

she's three years old, but I'll still hold her hand

walking on the pavement.

She's not ready to be let go yet.

And God will eventually get to that point where he lets your hand go,

so there's a little bit of comfort that almost feels has slightly gone,

but it's also your time to show you're not going to run out onto the road!

# Sometimes if I stopped You closed my eyes

# I believe that it's all true Believe it! #

-And we're nearly at Christmas.

-Yeah!

And so, Christmas obviously makes you very happy.

What are you doing for Christmas?

I got into panto in 2004, I think, was my first one.

'So, this year, I am playing Captain Hook.'

I am Prince Michael of Donegal!

Once upon a time, I was a prince...

-Oh!

-..and now I'm the baddie!

Christmas food. Who does the cooking? Sheena or you?

We have a very strange tradition in the Lynch household,

where Christmas dinner doesn't consist of a turkey.

It consists of shellfish, so lobsters.

-He cooks a wicked lobster and steak.

-He does.

-I'm cooking a lobster tails...

-Ooh!

..in a champagne sauce and a hint of Irish.

What?

Oh, some potatoes.

Lobsters - yeah, at Christmas, I know, it's weird.

Erm, I think that's definitely a Lynch thing.

Pretty damn nice dinner, to be fair.

-You're more than welcome.

-I'll be round.

-What time do you eat? Is it after the Queen?

-Around two o'clock.

-Perfect, just before the Queen.

-Yeah.

-Shane, thank you and Happy Christmas!

-Happy Christmas. Thank you.

-# I can't deny what I believe

-What I believe, yeah!

-# I can't be what I'm not

-I know, I know... #

What a story and how unabashed Shane is when he talks about his faith

and he talks so eloquently about his beliefs as well.

And I think that story about God holding your hand

until you are ready to let go safely is perhaps a Christmas present

that we can all share and take home from Shane.

-# That's all that matters to me

-No, no matter what... #

Next week, I meet Linford Christie -

European, Commonwealth, World and Olympic gold medallist.

I feel that I was born to run.

A failed drugs test marred his career,

but he's always denied wrong-doing.

People can say lots of bad things about me,

but to say they can prove I have taken drugs...

It's a load of rubbish.

Linford talks about the role of his faith during the highs and the lows.

# Pass around the bottle and we'll share your troubles

# Say la, la, la, la, la, la Love will save the day

# Pass around the bottle and we'll share your troubles

# Say la, la, la, la, la, la Love will save the day

# Say la, la, la, la, la, la Love will save the day. #

-CHEERING

-Thank you!